At 40, I own 5 cars, 2 are manuals, 3 are automatics.
I used to swear by manuals, but I don't spit on automatics like I used to. Automatics came a long way.
I'd take a great automatic over a poor manual.
Our van (Toyota Sienna) has a 5 speed automatic that shifts smoothly and overall works great. I once drove a 2002 Nissan Sentra with a 5 speed manual and it worked so bad I would have picked an automatic instead. The car wasn't even that old back then, maybe 2 or 3 years old.
Meanwhile, my daily driver is still a 5 speed manual that sees very little traffic, mostly highway driving. I still enjoy it. There will come a day where I'll have to quit daily driving with a stick shift, but I'll always keep an old stick shifted car for weekend cruising.